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Forum Discussion
RN104 stuck at 'boot menu', flashing power button
It seems a power failure (even though the NAS was turned off) has broken my device. I found it having turned itself on saying 'boot menu' with the power button flashing.I took out the disks (and labe...
StephenB wrote:Not sure how far you can get, given the broken serial number. But if you can get into tech support mode without the USB recovery image, then you can try to manually mount the OS partition and the data partition. You could then copy the data off to USB disk(s).
It is also possible to trigger a firmware update from tech support mode. But getting the data off the NAS first is the best approach.
It is possible to manually mount the disks from a normal linux system.
Alas, pressing the backup button doesn't cycle through the options, but stops at 'Boot Mode - Normal'; Tech support mode doesn't seem like an option. Copying the data would be a problem in itself as it is a half full 4x3TB RAID5, but I'll deal with that later, I'm not too worried that I might lose the data (but it would be nice to be able to fix the NAS in stead of having to find a big enough storage space to copy the data, get a new NAS and copying it back again.)
Sandshark wrote:How did you attempt the original update to 6.10.10? By USB recovery? That would be a bad thing and specifically what Netgear warns against doing, presumably for a reason. And I suspect that reason is that something changes in UBOOT. Of course, your UBOOT may have sustained damage, not just be corrupt. But if USB recovery to the same version that is already in the unit doesn't fix it, it's likely nothing can short of manually wiping and restoring the UBOOT (which I have no experience with, but do recall seeing a post here about) will fix it, and that's assuming there is no damage to it.
Indeed, by USB recovery (there was no other option), and trying to update 6.10.10 from 6.2.4 may have made the problems worse..? However, I did some troubleshooting and that seemed like the only option. I feel like Netgear didn't do too good a job warning against it. Sure, the USB Recovery Tool Page says to only use it at the "recommendation of Netgear Tech Support", but that's about as serious a warning as Samsung telling me not to install LineageOS on their device, so it never seemed like that big a deal. It's not like I haven't done dozens of similar things on differents systems. Also, the download page doesn't mention not to install 6.10.10 on 6.3.x or older (that's merely mentioned in the release notes), that, to me, seems like a pretty big thing to omit.
Anyway, on topic: I understand plugging the disks in a different NAS would most likely not work, so even though I'm still hoping on a little miracle that will fix my NAS, I will start thinking of a way to copy the data.
gdekker wrote:
Also, the download page doesn't mention not to install 6.10.10 on 6.3.x or older (that's merely mentioned in the release notes), that, to me, seems like a pretty big thing to omit.
It is, though keep in mind that you hadn't updated the firmware in 9 years. If you'd kept up along the way, you wouldn't have run into this.
gdekker wrote:
Anyway, on topic: I understand plugging the disks in a different NAS would most likely not work, so even though I'm still hoping on a little miracle that will fix my NAS, I will start thinking of a way to copy the data.
Disks can be migrated to another OS-6 ReadyNAS. You'd need to purchase one used. If you want to try this, install a test disk (not in the array) on the NAS first, and update the firmware to 6.10.9 (if you don't care about apps, you can go to 6.10.10). Make sure the NAS will boot with the test disk in every slot (powering down before moving the disk). After that, you can power down again and migrate the disks.
As I mentioned above, if you can connect all the disks to a PC, you can boot up that PC using linux (using a "live" USB boot disk) and then mount the disks manually using linux commands.
StephenB wrote:Disks can be migrated to another OS-6 ReadyNAS. You'd need to purchase one used. If you want to try this, install a test disk (not in the array) on the NAS first, and update the firmware to 6.10.9 (if you don't care about apps, you can go to 6.10.10). Make sure the NAS will boot with the test disk in every slot (powering down before moving the disk). After that, you can power down again and migrate the disks.
What concerns me about doing this, and just because I don't know what will happen, is that the OS on the drives will update to 6.10.x when they are installed without (it appears) going through the standard upgrade path. That should only be an issue with those ARM systems that require it, and may not be with them, either. StephenB , do you know for sure?
Thanks for adding that concern, that makes 3 reasons not to go for the OS-6 ReadyNAS. I've almost arrived at the 'acceptance' part of this grieving process 😉
Sandshark wrote:
That should only be an issue with those ARM systems that require it, and may not be with them, either. StephenB , do you know for sure?Of course one way to avoid that would be to migrate to an x86 ReadyNAS.
I don't know for certain, but I've always assumed the upgrade steps are needed because 6.2.5 and 6.5.2 included UBOOT updates, and that the newer firmware required those updates to be installed in order for the system to boot.
StephenB wrote:It is, though keep in mind that you hadn't updated the firmware in 9 years. If you'd kept up along the way, you wouldn't have run into this.
Well, the main problem is the power outage causing the 'boot menu' erro and the system not booting. I'm pretty sure having the latest firmware would'nt've prevented these problems. Nor do we know if if me trying to install 6.10.10 did anything at all, and if it did, if that caused the system to not update to 6.2.5 now. But yes, keeping the system up-to-date might not have been a bad idea, regardless of these problems 😉
StephenB wrote:
Disks can be migrated to another OS-6 ReadyNAS. You'd need to purchase one used. If you want to try this, install a test disk (not in the array) on the NAS first, and update the firmware to 6.10.9 (if you don't care about apps, you can go to 6.10.10). Make sure the NAS will boot with the test disk in every slot (powering down before moving the disk). After that, you can power down again and migrate the disks.
As I mentioned above, if you can connect all the disks to a PC, you can boot up that PC using linux (using a "live" USB boot disk) and then mount the disks manually using linux commands.I looked around for a secondhand 4-bay ReadyNAS, but none are offered. Plus, it might be wise not to migrate to another outdated system. So I think the easiest way would be to simply buy a new NAS and go the Linux route. There should be plenty documentation on how to do that, so I think I'll manage. (And if not, I know my way to the forum.)
Thanks for the help so far!
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